Parks staff to stay put while uncertainty surrounds Tourism NT

By Lauren Fitzgerald with Nadine Maloney

The Minister for Tourism and Parks and Wildlife says he doesn't envisage any Parks and Wildlife staff will be relocated when the department moves to Alice Springs, but won't say how many staff from Tourism NT will be sent south.

The Minister for Tourism and Parks and Wildlife Matt Conlan says he still doesn't know how many people from Tourism NT will move to new headquarters in Alice Springs.

"We envisage at this stage with the CEO based in Alice Springs and senior staff based around there that we'll probably have a third, perhaps half, but maybe a third of staff working out of the Alice Springs office.

"This is what we're doing, it is going to happen."

The Northern Territory Government plans on re-locating Tourism NT and Parks and Wildlife headquarters to Alice Springs, but the Community and Public Sector Union says some workers don't want to move from Darwin.

Minister Conlan says some staff are currently in negotiations with the Public Service Commissioner and the Tourism NT CEO and senior management.

"People will have a choice. There'll be plenty of choices on the table for people.

"No one will be forced to move, no one will be sacked if they don't move."

He says the Parks and Wildlife CEO and senior staff will be based in Alice Springs but people won't need to move, saying it's a different 'beast' to Tourism NT.

"There are very few people actually working in offices, they're actually out there in our parks right across the Northern Territory."

Minister Conlan says moving the headquarters of Tourism NT and the Parks and Wildlife department is part of a commitment to re-regional the Northern Territory.

"This election was essentially won in remote and regional parts of the NT and it is incumbent of us to honour what the electorate has handed us, which is government, and that is to re-resource and re-regionalise parts of the NT."